‘’You’re early,’’ Ethan stated before raising an eyebrow. ‘’Don’t tell me you’ve found the evidence already?’’

The kid smiled slightly. ‘’No, but I've got the lead you wanted, and it’s a good one. Is it okay to speak here?’’

Ethan smiled as well and gestured with his head. ‘’Let’s go somewhere less crowded.’’

‘’Who is this?’’ Michelle asked, looking at the kid over her shoulder.

‘’This is plan A. The one who was on the motion.’’

‘’I’m Billy,’’ the kid called from behind with confidence, making Ethan like him even more.

When they entered a narrow alley with no people, Ethan covered everybody with [Void Mute]. ‘’So? Spill it out.’’

‘’There is a loan shark called Mami.’’ Billy started his report with a straight back. ‘’She usually operates in the upper town, so it was noticed by a lot of people when her men have been seen in this area. I’ve learned that they did many things but one of them was to harass Neil daily, until 2 weeks ago. They’ve stopped 2 weeks ago and Neil’s shop got robbed a week ago.’’

‘’Hmm. Not bad,’’ Ethan commented with a thoughtful frown.

‘’You don’t understand,’’ Billy said, shaking his head. ‘’Mami wouldn’t bother anybody like that if they don’t owe her a big time. And she certainly wouldn’t stop bothering them if they didn’t pay.’’

‘’Interesting,’’ he said, raising an eyebrow. ‘’Tell me more about this Mami.’’

After a few minutes of explanation, Ethan was pretty sure that Neil paid his debt to Mami by letting them rob one of his shops, where half of the items belonged to his partner.

‘’Alright, that’s enough. Good job,’’ he said, tossing a mana stone to him. ‘’Tell me, can you travel to Ehrendil for another job?’’

Billy caught the mana stone and stuffed it into his inner pocket hurriedly. ‘’I-I might? Kids younger than 16 need some documents from their parents to use the teleportation gates, but I might arrange something. What’s the job?’’

Ethan fetched a pen and paper from his ring before starting to write as he spoke. ‘’I need you to bring a letter to a little elf girl named Renna and bring me her answer back. Check up a girl named Leyla from afar. And listen to every street rumor about the family last named McGregor. I need you to leave in three days at most and return the same day.’’ He wrote the addresses on another piece of paper and passed both of them to Billy.

‘’And the pay?’’

‘’Your every expense and another mana stone.’’

‘’Deal.’’

Ethan gave the kid money for the teleportation gates and sent him off before turning to Michelle. ‘’Alright, you wait here. I’ll be back shortly.’’

‘’What about the hairdresser?’’

‘’No need. The plan changed.’’

With a short walk and a few [Blink]s he arrived at the tavern where Neil was idly drinking all by himself. Donning his cloak, he hid his face under the hoodie, put the Memory Recorder they bought into his inner pocket, and blinked in front of Neil. He opened his [Void Mute] to cover the table and sat on the chair harshly.

‘’What–’’

‘’Shut it, fickle. Mami sent me.’’

‘’I-I… y-you… why?’’ Neil managed to utter some words with wide eyes.

‘’You know why. The goods worth half of what you said.’’

‘’Impossible!’’ Neil yelled before looking around to find no one heard and added quietly. ‘’Even if you sold them for a penny they were worth at least 500 mana stones. Just the statue of the moon goddess was worth more than 100 mana stones for god’s sake!’’

‘’We haven't sold shit yet,’’ he said. ‘’But none of the buyers seem to agree with you. Mami said you need to come and convince them.’’

Neil clenched his fists, barely holding himself to jump on Ethan. ‘’You gotta be kidding me! I can’t be seen with you guys. Mayer is already suspicious. The whole thing would blow up!’’

Ethan got up. ‘’Very well. The next one you see wouldn’t be me but Alex.’’ As Neil's face got pale, he turned to leave.

‘’O-Okay! Okay! I’ll come.’’

Ethan stopped and spoke without turning, ‘’Not now. I’ll pick you up from your hotel at midnight. You better be there when the time comes.’’ With that, he vanished with [Void Wrap] and a few [Blink]s.

Ethan arrived by Michelle and threw the Memory Recorder to her. ‘’Done. Let’s go to your base. Oh, we can also check some skill shops first. I’m feeling generous, might even buy you something for being my tour guide.’’

Michelle gawked at the recorder and listened, before blinking and looking at him. ‘’H-Hold on. What do you mean done? Just like that?’’

‘’Yeah. Plan A did a damn good job,’’ he replied with a flat face.

‘’But, that was so fast! And… Why are you upset?’’ she asked in disbelief.

‘’First, it was too easy, and second, I wanted to play wastrel noble and spend the night in a casino, okay?’’ he said, looking away and pouting.

‘’Well… Can’t you do that anyway?’’

‘’It’s not the same,’’ Ethan said, deflated. ‘’It’s too much of a guilty pleasure to do it casually. If it was a job, I’d tell myself that I had no choice but to do it thoroughly.’’

Michelle stared at him with a weird face. ‘’I actually feel sorry for you after this ridiculous statement.’’

‘’As you should.’’ He put his hands in his pockets and kicked the small stone on the ground half-heartedly before walking slowly and murmuring to himself, ‘’I might still visit the casino. It’d be better than nothing, I guess.’’

They decided to stop by the skill store before meeting with the others. Ethan knew all the skills would be common ones but thought that some of them might be still useful for him. Right now, what he lacked most was a defense skill, and he definitely wouldn’t say no to a movement skill, or anything that would give him some temporary boost. But these skills were very important for him, if possible, he wanted them with void, space, or time aspects, even if he knew even getting one with a shadow aspect would be difficult.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

As the sky took the color of reddish-orange, they walked at a slow pace, enjoying the liveliness of the streets.

For the first time since they were together, Ethan asked something in a serious tone. ‘’Michelle, what do you know about Rachel? The chemist one. Do you think she is trustworthy?’’

‘’Rachel? Why?’’ Michelle asked back, surprised. ‘’Don’t you know her already?’’

‘’Not really. Where did you get that?’’

‘’You were sitting together on the ship. Everyone thought you’re close friends and she never said anything otherwise.’’

Ethan shook his head. ‘’No, she was a friend of Vince. That was my first time meeting her, and now, I’ve something important that would need an alchemist, but I’m not sure if she’s reliable.’’

‘’We also met only a few hours ago, but you trust me already?’’

‘’More than her, that’s for sure. Honestly, I had friends like you back on Earth. I always love the straightforward types.’’

Michelle smiled slightly and turned her head, puffing her chest. ‘’Heh, looks like you have a good eye for people. As for Rachel, she has a master who is at tier-7 and someone important in the city, but even after finding such a good opportunity, she didn’t leave the group. We still buy our potions from her with a good discount. I’ve never seen anything that’d show that she is unreliable, not to mention she didn’t even bother herself once with the relentless pursuits of Leo. That gotta be a good point, right?’’

‘’Definitely,’’ Ethan agreed with a smile. ‘’Is she staying at your base as well?’’

‘’No, but she has a lab next to Abraham’s. She comes by almost every day for a few hours.’’

They entered the skill shop as they talked. The place was double the size of the one Ethan visited in Ehrendil, and almost as full as that one. Without even speaking, they separated among the crowd and started to explore the marvels of the universe. Every skill that was for sale, was a product of a tier-9. The Ascendants also sent skills to the lower realms, but they tended to be for one use only. Only the tier-9 locals of Azora recorded their new skills with an option for mass production because it was the perfect legacy for the future generations of their family.

Regardless of how big this place was, Ethan saw that all the skills were either the same or similar to the ones he saw at Ehrendil, except for a few. After half an hour of debating with himself, he decided on three different skills. One for each of them.

The one he chose for Michelle was a stamina-based skill called [Endure]. The description said, it was only to be used when one is half dead, which he guessed was about less than a quarter of the original HP, and it worked best with people who have high stamina, making it a perfect fit for Michelle. What it did was use all of the user's stamina in exchange for a few seconds of -depending on stamina- invulnerability. It wasn’t much but still could’ve been a lifesaver under certain conditions. With a price of 8 gold coins, it was a good gift for his new friend.

The skill he picked up for Beet was a bit odd, but there were no skills with death affinity, and this one sounded pretty good. It was a blood skill called [Blood Edge]. What it did was add a thin and solid layer to the nails, making them razor-sharp. To use it with the nails wasn’t a must though, it was just a suggestion. Ethan thought it would be perfect for Beet’s scythes, but the thing that made him more interested was the note saying that it could be used with the summons even at the rank-1. And the price was rather fair, only 5 mana stones.

There were many skills he could use on his own, but he was waiting for Mirasatra for the big shopping spree, and Evelyn also mentioned that having too many skills becomes a burden at the high tiers, the trick was to pick something that’d always be useful even if he didn't manage to rank it up.

In the end, he went for one of the expensive skills, [Blood Rush]: A blood skill that gives the user more clarity and the ability to think faster. It only worked in the moment of danger and the stamina consumption was quite high, but it was definitely a game changer. The note said, time slows down for everyone but you; in a sense, this was also a time-related skill. He didn’t even mind the price of 23 mana stones, because if he had this skill on the 9th floor of Wish Well, he would’ve evaded the last attack of the dryad boss easily with [Fabric Tear]s, perhaps, that close call was a bigger trauma than he thought.

They all learned the skills inside the shop and left with smiles, well, except Beet. When he looked at his shadow curiously, Ethan immediately warned him not to release the shades as they talked before. Then, Beet started sulking and even stopped using Ethan’s shoulder as a means of transportation.

Michelle accepted her gift eagerly without even bothering with false courtesy, only throwing a casual thanks in passing. She was just like an old friend, like the ones you see after years, and start talking like you’ve never been separated.

They arrived at the base when the night embraced Niamaris. The location was between the ghetto and the upper town, but what made Ethan surprised was the building itself. It was a notable old-looking mansion, one of the oldest he had seen in the city. If he didn’t know that 10 biochip users were inside, he’d never have thought this was the place they chose.

‘’Cheap rent, I assume?’’ he asked Michelle as they entered the yard.

‘’Not really. We moved here just a month ago with almost all our savings, but now that there are many tier-3s in the group, our earnings should increase quite a bit. And the plan was to renovate this place to make it worth more than its rent. Well, that’s still the plan.’’

‘’It’s a bit of a big move for the start, but I like it.’’

‘’Will you stay here?’’ she asked. ‘’Even after the others returned, we should have some empty rooms.’’

‘’Nah, it’d be awkward after I told Rafael that I don’t plan to join you guys. I’ll settle to a hotel, and come visit you guys as long as I’m here.’’

‘’It’s your choice. Though, I don’t think anybody would say something if you stayed here.’’

He understood her meaning after entering the mansion. It was just like how he was on the ship, every biochip user who noticed him got stiff, whispers of Throne of Cut-Throat started to travel and the few locals who saw the people’s reaction started asking others about who he was. Honestly, after experiencing this world’s magic and witnessing god-like beings, he was hoping that the others would stop seeing him as a monster. Apparently, the impression he left on his fellow earthlings was more impactful than he guessed. It’s all that Ray Murren guy. The bastard released my videos from the game with amazing visual effects and we both went viral in such a short time. Even I was struck dumb with how good they were.

‘’Everyone, this is Ethan. He’s a friend of the Earth Mercenaries and will be staying in Niamaris for a few more weeks,’’ Michelle announced.

‘’Does Leo know about this, Michelle?’’ a middle-aged man asked. He was the only tier-4 in the mansion and one of the locals.

‘’No, but they know each other. And what are you afraid of? That he is going to steal the floor tiles?’’ she replied with a scowl before turning to Ethan. ‘’I’m going to report the job to the customer. Rachel seems to be in her lab, it’s in the basement on the left.’’

The man frowned but didn’t say anything while Ethan held Michelle's arm and opened his [Void Mute]. ‘’Thanks for the help. And one more thing. What’s your story for the locals?’’

‘’Oh, right. Everyone has a different background story they made up, and for how we know each other, we just tell them that we started this mercenary band together. Just don’t tell anybody about Ani and you’re golden,’’ Michelle said, patting his shoulder with a smile.

Ethan rolled his eyes at the wordplay and directly went for the basement. He wasn’t expecting any warm welcome, but the cold attitude of the people still made him feel isolated. Without knowing anything about him, the people of Earth were already certain of their presumptions and just wanted to stay away from him like a plague. Hi, Ethan! I’m glad that you’re alive. Was that so hard? he thought with a sigh as he climbed down the stairs. To be honest, I’m not the friendliest guy either, maybe they are right to be afraid of me. In the end, I never showed them anything to think otherwise.

The so-called basement turned out to be a small dungeon. He trekked the long hallway with empty prison cells on both sides. There was a smell of herbs coming from the end of the hall but before going there, the sounds of something heavy hitting to ground grabbed his attention. Peeking from the half-open door, he saw a tall and thin man with a white lab coat who was drawing something on the table, next to the giant humanoid structures with indigo-colored tribal designs on them.

Ethan closed his slack jaw with effort. ‘’Are those…’’

The man turned to glance at him. ‘’Indeed,’’ he said, pushing up his glasses with his finger. ‘’Rune Golems.’’